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User blog:TheGoldenPatrik1/Best you can be:Sentinels
Welcome to the second installment of the Best You Can Be blog series, detailing how to be an ideal member of the Staff. This post is about s, the active guardians of the wiki, equipped with tools to move poor quality conceptions, moderate chat, vandals, and quickly undo vandalism. |-|Introduction= What are Sentinels? Sentinels are users who have successfully the . Their tools include: *The ability to block users. *The ability to ban or kick users from . *The ability to move pages without leaving a redirect. *The ability to undo edits using the Rollback tool. With these tools, they can patrol the Wiki and keep it safe from harm. |-|The Best Sentinel You Can Be= Be Vigilant Sentinels were given their name because they are meant to be patrollers. They should be aware of what is happening on the Wikia, so that they may take action when vandalism or other abuses occur. Remaining in chat and watching are the best ways to do so. Use Your Rights Once you locate vandalism in progress, disruption in chat, or a user asking for assistance you can provide, that is when you must act to stop the vandalism, calm the disruption, or provide that assistance. Sentinels are granted rights expressly so that they may use them, and to be idle is to solicit demotion. Use Your Rights, the sequel You may ask; what do I do if nothing bad is occurring? How do I remain active so that my rights are merited? No matter what, you should continue to stay vigilant just in case, yet there are still other tasks one can complete in more peaceful times. For example, simply stays active in chat for long periods and has experience in dealing with harassment. Looking at another exemplary Sentinel, , he is sometimes unable to check the wiki for days in a row; but he more than makes up for it by moving literally hundreds of conceptions at a time using the “Suppress Redirect” tool Sentinels were endowed with for this express purpose. Now, those are two extreme examples of what you can do with your rights. For other applications, see the next tab; there are plenty of things one can do, and as long as you fill a niche, you will have more than earned your slot as a Sentinel. Forging your own path While the last tab goes into detail about what one can currently do with their rights, they aren’t set in stone. If you pride yourself on cleaning up redirects, then dealing with broken redirects is sometimes difficult; sometimes they just need to be deleted, which only s can currently do. However, if there is a present need, the Sentinel user-group can be amended to allow Sentinels to delete pages. Similarly, they could be granted the right to mark pages as patrolled; rights are fluid, and should you find a niche that you believe you could better fill with expanded Sentinel rights, . |-|Practical Applications= So you now know to use your rights, but in what ways? #Patrol . The more you patrol this, the more chance you have of seeing a vandal and nipping their vandalism in the bud. #*Keep an eye out for junk pages and add to the top (do not replace the entire contents). You can also notify an Admin. #*Review every edit you see and make sure it’s a good one. If it’s vandalous, rollback it and give the vandal a short block. If it’s a poor edit, but one with good intent behind it, undo it so that whoever did it can see their mistake, or better yet, rework their intended edit into an acceptable format and then leave them a message about it. #Review pages. #*Make sure they meet the . If not, move them to the Userspace without a redirect, but be sure to clear . Also, remove any categories and . #*Add categories and if an acceptable page lacks them. #Clear redlinks/redirects. #*Go through and change links to lead directly to the main page instead of to their redirect pages via . #*Go through and and fix them! #*Clean by removing links to items in those lists! #* is your friend! #Keep an eye on . #*Spend as long as you an in chat, checking on it every few minutes. If someone comes by, be friendly and encourage relevant conversation. #*Kick users who spam or harass. If you catch yourself saying "stop" or "that's enough", it's time for a kick. After all, kicks are warnings. If they repeat the offense, ban them from chat. #Interact! #*Some users may need to move their pages, may have questions about what kinds of edits are acceptable, or may be struggling to undo vandalism. Take some time out to offer assistance to these new arrivals so that they can become the Best Editors They Can Be. #*Even if help isn’t asked for, if you see someone having trouble, offer advice! Take some time to leave a helpful message on their wall so that they know how best to act in the future. # responsibly. #*When blocking, try to leave a message on the wall of the blocked user (unless they are an Anon or a blatant spammer) to suggest ways they can avoid disruptive behavior in the future. #*Be sure also to let an Admin know whenever you block someone; even if all you get is a simple “OK,” it’s good practice to ensure that everyone is in the loop. #*Block for reasonable spans of time. If it’s a vandalous anon, IP block them for a single day and they may never return. If the same anon starts up again, give them a couple weeks. With users it is more subjective, but the shortest amount of time reasonable is usually the ideal, & IP blocks for users should be avoided. 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